Desperate for a miracle

Growing up in a conservatively liberal family my values towards God and devotion were also modest enough. Do I believe in His existence? Of course I do. But my belief is not limited to the Gods my faith recognizes. At the risk of sounding like some pretentious avatar I confess – to me the feel of the Almighty is more important than His shape or form. To me devotion towards the concept of Him is more valuable than orthodox rituals and endless rites. To me the platonic connection with His being is what matters rather than seeing Him as a person with magical powers. His blessing is apparent to me in the deeds I do and not in what I offer Him as a token.

Day in day out hope is crushed all around India much like anywhere else in the world. Be it the common man’s basic rights, be it the next door girl spurning the romantic advances of a love sick teen or be it the hopeless hope of finally winning the illusive cricket World Cup. When compared to hope the real unfortunate kind though is the ‘faith card’. Bogged down by the constant battle in our daily lives, we cling on to our faiths like there is no tomorrow. It seems like the most logical thing to do when absolutely nothing is happening like we would want it to. No amount of early morning bathes and prayers are bearing the fruit of our liking. The problem with this attitude is that everyone else seems out to abuse the faith card for their personal gains. People following one faith have no faith in the other. People who do have some faith in something are made to lose all their faith eventually. It indeed is a vicious little circle of endless mind games.

I am not a naysayer. If there is one thing I have hated with a lot of passion is the habit of refusing to agree with a concept without proper scrutiny. Despite this rather generous approach the incidents of idols of Gods performing seemingly unnatural miracles has me pondering every single time. It all started with Lord Ganesha’s idols beginning to drink milk. Only Lord Ganesha knows how many tens of thousands of liters have been wasted down his trunk during that phase. Of course, to hype up our already famous stereotype of being a ‘land of the cows’, we did not seem to care. If only that milk was used for the poor and the needy. Sigh! There was also an incident where the Arabian Sea got a ‘sweet tooth’ recently which saw scores of people taking a plunge into the sweet water that seemed to erupt out of nowhere. Another incident had a deity somewhere shedding tears from the eyes which also had a good audience as I understand.

One incident after another keeps ringing the faith bell and getting thousands of miracle- enthusiasts lining up to see it happen. The latest one has Lord Hanuman apparently blinking at the visitors but the one witness who did manage to see it claims no such thing happened. Regardless of how much truth lies in these incidents we, as devout Indians, have done everything we can to let Him know that we await His blessed arrival in every form and shape. If there is one thing which drives an otherwise educated, sophisticated and well rounded individual to line up with folded palms to see these happen is faith.

I wonder if this is some kind of proof to showcase the timeless oppression we have been a part of. Maybe we are so fed up of being a ‘developing’ country for so long that we seriously need a break. Even if it means a divine one.

So the next time you hear a miracle like this happen at a place near you, I urge you to please go ahead and have a look. Who knows…maybe He is indeed making appearances in India to tell people to stop being so desperate for a miracle. That they are the real miracles who can do wonders if they put their skills to proper use. They are the ones who can create heaven on Earth with the right decisions. They are the real wonders.

After all, haven’t we been told all our lives that each one of us is a form of His being?

--ShaKri